Mummies can teach lessons from heart

Research: Clogged arteries a problem 4,000 years ago

The Egyptian mummy Hatiay was found to have evidence of extensive vascular disease by CT scanning in Cairo. Hatiay lived during the 18th Dynasty, which lasted from 1550 to 1295 B.C.

Dr. Michael Miyamoto/Associated Press

The Egyptian mummy Hatiay is scanned in Cairo, Egypt, as part of a major survey to investigate about 137 mummies. It revealed that people probably had clogged arteries and heart disease back then, too.

Dr. Michael Miyamoto/Associated Press

Egyptologists prepare the mummy Hatiay for CT scanning in Cairo, Egypt. The mummy was found to have evidence of extensive vascular disease.

Dr. Michael Miyamoto/Associated Press

LONDON  Even without modern-day temptations such as fast food or cigarettes, people had clogged arteries about 4,000 years ago, according to the biggest-ever hunt for the condition in mummies.

Researchers say that suggests heart disease may be more a natural part of human aging rather than being directly tied to contemporary risk factors such as smoking, eating fatty foods and not exercising.

CT scans of 137 mummies showed evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardened arteries, in one-third of those examined, including those from ancient people believed to have healthy lifestyles. Atherosclerosis causes heart attacks and strokes. More than half of the mummies were from Egypt while the rest were from Peru, southwest America and the Aleutian islands in Alaska. The mummies were from about 3800 B.C. to 1900 A.D.

Heart disease has been stalking mankind for over 4,000 years all over the globe, said Dr. Randall Thompson, a cardiologist at Saint Lukes Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City and lead author of a paper on the study.

The mummies with clogged arteries were older at the time of their death, around 43 versus 32 for those without the condition. In most cases, scientists couldnt say whether the heart disease killed them.

The study results were announced last week at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in San Francisco and simultaneously published online in the journal Lancet.

Thompson said he was surprised to see hardened arteries even in people such as the ancient Aleutians who were presumed to have a healthy lifestyle as hunter-gatherers.

I think its fair to say people should feel less guilty about getting heart disease in modern times, he said. We may have oversold the idea that a healthy lifestyle can completely eliminate your risk.

Thompson said there could be unknown factors that contributed to the mummies narrowed arteries. He said the ancestral Puebloans who lived in underground caves in modern-day Colorado and Utah used fire for heat and cooking, producing a lot of smoke.

They were breathing in a lot of smoke and that could have had the same effect as cigarettes, he said.

Previous studies have found evidence of heart disease in Egyptian mummies, but the Lancet paper is the largest survey so far and the first to include mummies elsewhere in the world.

Dr. Frank Ruehli of the University of Zurich, who runs the Swiss Mummy Project, said it was clear atherosclerosis was notably present in antiquity and agreed there might be a genetic predisposition to the disease.

Humans seem to have a particular vulnerability (to heart disease), and it will be interesting to see what genes are involved, he said. Ruehli was not connected to the study. This is a piece in the puzzle that may tell us something important about the evolution of disease.

Other experts warned against reading too much into the mummy data.

Dr. Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said calcified arteries could also be caused by other ailments including endocrine disorders and it was impossible to tell from the CT scans if the types of calcium deposits in the mummies were the kind that would have sparked a heart attack or stroke.

Its a fascinating study, but Im not sure we can say atherosclerosis is an inevitable part of aging, he said, citing the numerous studies that have shown strong links between lifestyle factors and heart disease.

Researcher Thompson advised people to live as healthy a lifestyle as possible, noting that the risk of heart disease could be reduced with good eating habits, not smoking and exercising. We dont have to end up like the mummies, he said.

Mummies can teach lessons from heart

The Egyptian mummy Hatiay was found to have evidence of extensive vascular disease by CT scanning in Cairo. Hatiay lived during the 18th Dynasty, which lasted from 1550 to 1295 B.C.

Dr. Michael Miyamoto/Associated Press

The Egyptian mummy Hatiay is scanned in Cairo, Egypt, as part of a major survey to investigate about 137 mummies. It revealed that people probably had clogged arteries and heart disease back then, too.

Dr. Michael Miyamoto/Associated Press

Egyptologists prepare the mummy Hatiay for CT scanning in Cairo, Egypt. The mummy was found to have evidence of extensive vascular disease.